Life Goes On
by CorinNorway
Summary: When a new marriage law is passed, Hermione is left with very few options, other than to marry the man she's been matched with by the Ministry. Can almost guarantee and M rating for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

"This has got to be a sick joke." I sobbed, glaring down at the single piece of paper I held in my hand, "There is no way. This isn't happening."

"I'm sure everything will be just fine. We were expecting this." Mrs. Weasley offered, sitting beside me at the table and giving me a one-armed hug, "We can make this right."

"How can we make this right?" I sobbed, "I've been matched! If I don't come up with someone on my own before my wedding date, I'll be marrying Dean Thomas."

"Worse things could happen, Darling. You may be one of the only ones that hasn't been set to marry a Death Eater." Molly admitted, "So you don't love him. You could learn to."

"I don't want to learn to love someone, Mrs. Weasley. I want to do it in my own time. Is that too much to ask?"

Mrs. Weasley sighed, standing to go back to her washing, "I wish it were that simple, Hermione. But that isn't the world we live in anymore."

"How are George and Ginny doing?" I asked, once I'd gotten my tears to subside.

"Ginny isn't too worse for wear. She has Harry, you know. They were planning on marrying eventually anyway. It's a little soon, they say, but they're managing.

"George isn't doing too well, though. He has Angelina, you know, but I think he'd always imagined Fred being his best man.

"Ron is the one I'm worried about. He hasn't had much luck recently. Not since the two of you -"

"Mrs. Weasley, please understand that our breakup was two-sided. We both felt like we needed to end things. It just wasn't going anywhere. He understands and we'd both appreciate if you would be supportive. He's a kind lad - I'm sure any girl would be happy to have him. Who's he been paired with?"

"Luna Lovegood. Strange girl, she is. Very strange." Mrs. Weasley sighed, "I only wish he could find someone before their match is made. He has only two months until his wedding date."

"I've got three."

"Three months to fall in love with someone. What a feat." Mrs. Weasley continued, her thoughts clearly still on Ron, "I only wish my boys were happy. I just don't know if Ron will be happy with Luna."

In order to change the subject, I opted for a rather neutral Weasley, "And what of Percy? What's his stance in all of this?"

"He's being dutiful to his Ministry. He's agreed to marry the girl he's been paired with." Her entire face suddenly dropped as she continued to manually wash her dishes, "He's been paired with Pansy Parkinson."

"Pansy. Oh, no. He can't - she's got connections to the Death Eaters."

"But she isn't one. He's been paired. He's a good boy and he'll be a dutiful husband." She seemed genuinely upset, but pushed to find the good in the situation.

"Mrs. Weasley, you can't be happy about this. Isn't there anything we can do? Arthur and Percy both work for the Ministry. Can they not find some kind of caveat? Is there really nothing else?"

"Nothing." Mrs. Weasley sighed with a purse of her lips and shrug of her shoulders, "So, if I were you, I would get to know this boy Dean. Because after your engagement period, you'll be spending quite a lot of time together."

I wiped the tears from my eyes and pushed myself away from the table, "Thank you, Mrs. Weasley. If you don't mind, I'm going to find Ginny."

"It's getting late. We've got an early start in the morning." She called after me, as I charged up the stairs.

=^..^=

Comments, anyone? Like it? Hate it? Let me know what I can do to make this better. Is my SPaG okay?


	2. Chapter 2

"Hermione, I'd like for you to be my maid of honor." Ginny whispered, as I sat cross-legged across from her on the bed.

"Of course I'll be your maid of honor, Ginny." I sighed, flopping backwards. I wanted to keep my tears back, but they just continued to flood my eyes. Ginny getting married so soon suddenly made this all so real.

"I meet with Dean tomorrow to talk about what's going to happen." I cried, "I've got no idea what I'm going to do. I can't be with him. Have you read your statement of law all the way through?"

"No. Frankly, I didn't bother. I figured Harry and I would qualify no matter what." Ginny admitted.

"We have to consummate it within twelve hours of the ceremony. And there has to be at least one child in the next year. Ginny, I don't want these things. I don't want this with anyone, much less someone I don't love."

"Well, there isn't a thing we can do about it. So we may as well grit our teeth and do it." Ginny snapped.

"That's easy for you to say. You've been dating Harry for two years." The words slipped through my lips before I had time to stop them. The second I did, though, I knew it was a huge mistake.

"Which is why I'd appreciate it if you showed a little bit of support for me!" She finally snapped, her face going pale, "I'm scared. I'm bloody terrified. I am seventeen years old. You think I want to be married now? I wanted so many things for myself that aren't going to happen now. So I'd appreciate it, if for just a second, you would stop moaning over your bad luck and be a little supportive. My wedding is in two weeks, Hermione. You have three months to decide what you want. I've got two weeks. Just think about that."

I shoved my tears down as I sat up, "Thank you for listening, Ginny. I'm going to go get some air."

She didn't take off after me or anything, shocked by the fact that I'd actually apparated out. I was never much of a fan of apparating, preferring to actually walk the couple of steps to the door. I didn't want to risk getting stopped and reprimanded again.

I took off to the place I liked to think the most. I collapsed in my normal spot on the roof - just below the chimney and finally let out every emotion I was feeling. I screamed, and kicked, and sobbed, and cursed until I finally had no more energy left in my body.

"Who's there?" A familiar voice snapped from the other side of the chimney, "Ginny, is that you?"

"Percy," I choked, pulling the reigns on my emotions once more. I stood, making my presence known to him, "I'm sorry. I didn't know you were up here."

"Clearly. If you had, I'd imagine you wouldn't have put on that lovely display just then." He quipped, refusing to look up from the thick book in his lap.

"The day's been rough. I just needed somewhere to think for a while." I admitted, closing the distance between us and sitting beside him, "What are you reading?" I asked, appraising the thickness of the novel.

"An old muggle thing Dad picked up at work. Les Misérables. It's quite good."

"I've read that one. It's a good read. A long read, but a good one. I always thought I was most like Eponine. The way Hugo describes her - she's just so broken."

"And you're broken, Ms. Granger?" He lifted an eyebrow, finally looking up and shutting the volume.

"Some days more than others. Today was probably the biggest blow." I sighed, resting my head in my hands, "I got my letter from the Ministry."

"I got mine yesterday as well." He murmured, looking up at the sky, down at the ground - anywhere but at me.

"So I've heard. You're to be with Pansy Parkinson."

"She's a little girl." He whimpered, "There's no way she's more than 17 years old. I'm a pedophile."

"No, you aren't. You were matched. You didn't get a say in any of this. Don't you dare say otherwise." I then did something I never thought I would do. The momentary break in his stony complex found me a bit of a camaraderie.

I took his face in my hands and looked him clear in the eye, "You've changed, Percy."

"I was a horrible person. I was on track to fixing everything I'd done and then this happened."

"You are not a horrible person. Percy - " he refused to look me in the eye, "Percival, you look at me when I'm talking to you."

His eyes lightened a little bit at my use of his full name, "Listen to me. You have always held onto what you believe to be the right thing."

"No matter what I try to do, everything seems to go wrong. It doesn't matter how right I try to make things."

"Percy, this law isn't your fault. None of this is your fault."

"My head knows that. But everything else tells me that if I'd just believed Harry the first time he told us Voldemort was back, I could've done something. The war wouldn't have happened then we wouldn't have this ridiculous marriage law."

"Percy, there wasn't a thing you could've done. This is an entire nation of evil beings we're talking about. One person couldn't have taken them down all on their own."

"I've been sitting up here since practically the moment I got my letter thinking about all the things I could've done differently. Now I'm stuck marrying Pansy Parkinson and everyone is unhappy. All I ever wanted was to help people. That's the only reason I went to work for the Ministry. I wanted to make life better for people."

"And we can work on that. We can take this thing down from the inside. Things will get better. As much as I hate to admit it, this isn't all bad."

"How's that?" He asked. It was the first time I'd noticed that he was totally and utterly broken over this.

"Neither of us are matched with Death Eaters. And I'm sure you'll be a good, dutiful husband to Pansy." I practically duplicated what Mrs. Weasley had said earlier that day. I now saw what she was trying to do. The same thing I was, in fact. We knew what we were saying was complete hogwash, but if it made us feel better, it was worth the lie.

"I'll be a dutiful husband because that's what any man should do. It doesn't mean I'll enjoy it."

"At least your match is irrefutably straight. I'm pretty certain that Dean is bi curious." I joked, trying to bring some kind if light to the conversation.

Sure enough, he got a laugh out of it. Come to think of it, I don't think I'd ever seen Percy laugh before that day. It was something I wasn't used to. Not that I had much interaction with the man, but he was a bit stiff from what I understood.

"I really wish there was a way out of this." I sighed, splaying my legs and looking up in search of the moon.

"We could always call in Charlie for you, but me - "

"Percy, you're a bloody genius!" I gasped, leaping into the air, practically taking a head first tumble off the roof.

I could tell he almost recoiled when I pulled him into a massive hug, "I'm afraid I'm lost, Granger. You're going to have to explain this one."

"Quick, right now. Propose to me." I commanded, turning toward him and placing my hands on his knees.

He looked utterly shellshocked and actually leaned back, due to our close proximity, "Beg pardon."

"This is our solution, Percy! You marry me. I get to stay at the Burrow and you don't have to marry Pansy. It's perfect!"

"No, that's not right. I'm not going to use you to get out of a bind." He shook his head, "I wouldn't do that to anyone."

"Why not? You can use me. I'm perfectly willing." I stopped and thought about it for a second, cringing at my choice of words, "Okay, not what I meant." I chuckled, exasperated, "But really Percy! This is a golden opportunity!"

"Do you have any idea what this law entails? Have you read the pamphlet cover to cover?" I knew what he meant. Consummating the marriage. The part about children.

"I've read it. I understand it. And you need to ask me - right now - before I realize what I'm doing and run for the hills."

"I just don't -"

"Percy!" I interjected, my eyes huge. I couldn't believe what I was even saying. It just didn't feel real, "Just do it."

"MarrymeHermione." He finally blurted out. He looked as if he wanted to crawl under a rock - utterly horrified.

"For God's sake. I just offered myself to you. You could at least show a little bit of enthusiasm." I jabbed him in the ribs, "You know, when I imagined getting engaged, it really was nothing like this."

"Who would imagine this?" He scoffed, "Having to force the brother of your ex-lover to propose in order to escape some law. Every little girl's dream."

"Clearly you've never been in the girl's dormitory. Those girls had all sorts of creepy fetishes." I cackled, thinking back to the odd conversations we'd had after curfew, "If I recall correctly, Patricia had a particular hankering for feet."

"That was far more information than I cared to know. Thank you for that." He cringed at the idea.

"What can I say? We're going to be married. You may as well get used to me."

"So...what do we do now?" He asked, standing and rocking on his heels.

"Well, I guess we tell your mother." I sighed, brushing myself off and standing up in tandem.

"Tell my mother that we've come to what could more or less be seen as a business arrangement?" He scoffed, "Hermione, you must know by now, my mother loves you and Harry like her own children. More so than she ever did me. I'm convinced she'd beat me to a pulp." A wry smile that I'd never seen before spread across his face.

"That is not true." I gave his shoulder a shove, "But...perhaps we should come up with some kind of a story. To ease the blow?"

"So, basically we have to see what my lovely family will react with less viciously. Impromptu engagement or a longtime secret affair."

"That's what I've deduced. Yes."

"Oh, Christ." He chuckled, running a hand over his hair.

"You've got about ten seconds to decide, because I'm going downstairs now and I'm telling her whatever pops into my head first."

With that, I rushed for the attic door and flew down the stairs with Percy tight on my heels.


	3. Chapter 3

"You are telling me that you two came to an arrangement on your own. Without any help from anyone or getting permission from her father?" Mrs. Weasley shrieked. She was rather old-fashioned, I could give her that much, "What are you going to tell her parents when you see them, Percival? Or did you even consider that?"

I didn't even consider that. My parents lived an entirely Muggle lifestyle. They knew nothing about this law. As a matter of fact, they knew nothing about the Weasleys. They didn't know a thing about anything that happened outside of summer vacation, when I lived with them. What were we supposed to tell them?

"I'll tell them what I've just told you." Percy snapped, standing stalk straight by my side, "I'll tell them that we've been seeing each other for a good while in secret and the time had come to make it legal."

"I find this a little bit disconcerting," Mrs. Weasley stood, beginning to pace in front of us, "It wasn't two days ago that Hermione got her letter from the Ministry and now you two are happily engaged." She knew completely what was going on. But Percy was a good actor. He could keep up appearances.

"Mother, I would appreciate it if you showed some civility to my bride." he awkwardly, stiffly, took a hand from where it had been pressed behind his back and pulled me close around the waist, "The time seemed right. That's all you need to know."

"Your father - "

"Will be happy for us when he hears the news." Percy interjected, "And I would appreciate it if you would do the same. I mean really, Mother. You were civil when Bill decided to marry Fleur. At least I've chosen to marry someone we can all tolerate."

"How very gracious of you." she choked, her face still pale, "You want to do this, then I give you my blessing, but it will be under a few conditions."

I could feel my muscles and his seemingly relax once she had given her consent, "Right. Conditions. Let's hear them." I sighed, removing myself from Percy's grip and once more sitting down at the dining room table, across from Mrs. Weasley.

"First of all, you two will floo in the morning to go see Hermione's parents and tell them the good news." I nodded. That was the least I could do for my parents. I couldn't imagine simply showing up for Christmas with a husband. I was positive that my parents would've not been okay with that.

"Secondly, you two will not do this the easy way. We will have a reception here and I will be the one to plan it. Lastly, Hermione, you will move into Percy's room at the end of the week."

"That's sounds fair." Percy sighed in relief, turning to me and nodding. We were both expecting some far more ridiculous conditions.

Mrs. Weasley nodded once more and continued on with cleaning up the dinner dishes in the next room over, "And for God's sake, get the girl a ring!" she called once more, causing both Percy and me to laugh.

"That's that then." he shrugged, "So, tomorrow morning we'll go into town and get an engagement ring. And then we'll go to your parents' and let them know."

"Sounds like a plan." I agreed.

"Do you want tea, Love?" he asked, going to the kettle and pouring himself a glass.

"What's my favorite color?" I retorted, with a humored glint in my eye.

He seemed to go into panic mode as he dug through the masses of information in his mind to try to think of the one possible time I might have told him, "Uh...pink?"

"Wrong. It's Yellow." I stood and gave him a bop on the head, "You don't reserve the right to call me 'Love' until you know things about me."

"I was close, though." he grumbled under his breath.

"No, not really." I countered, taking the cup from his hands and making my way back up to Ginny's room, where I was bunking.

"What the hell was happening down there? Was Percy arguing with Mum again?" Ginny asked, looking up from where she sat in the corner, reading from her latest magazine.

"No, no. Well, kind of. We were just working out some of the - finer details - of our engagement." I grumbled, collapsing onto my bed.

"Engagement." Ginny mumbled the word, letting it process for a time.

"Yes." I agreed halfheartedly, picking up my herbology textbook and thumbing through.

"Hermione Granger, don't think you're going to get away with just up and saying something like that. Explain." Ginny demanded, flying across the room until she was sitting right next to me, ready for some girl talk.

"There really isn't much to explain. Percy and I have been seeing each other for a while now in secret. The new law came up, so we took advantage of it. That's really all there is to it."

"You think I believe that? Hermione, you were hysterical when you heard about the law and I know it isn't because of Percy. I want to hear the truth."

"That is the truth." I faltered a bit when she placed her hand over my own, "Hermione, I'm not going to tell anyone."

I let a single tear fall once again. Ginny had that effect. I just cried around her - all the time, "After we talked, I went up to the roof to think and he was there. We talked about it for a while. We came to an agreement."

"Oh, Hermione, you can't do that. You're selling yourself. You can find yourself someone. Or really, Dean isn't that bad. I'm sure he'd make a good husband." Ginny continued to ramble, but I held my hand up for her to stop.

"Your brother is being very gracious to me. He'll be a good husband - a good father. And you know, if I have to go through this anywhere, I'd rather it be here at the Burrow with my friends. This may very well be the only place I could do this."

"But he's such a prick. Honestly, if he weren't my brother I would've scraped his eyes out by now with a dull spoon."

"He's really not, Ginny. We've talked and honestly, he seems just like any other guy. He's got that holier-than-thou shield up. But if you get him to really talk, it actually isn't half bad." I admitted, "And here I am talking to you about your brother, like you two are total strangers."

"I just don't see how this will work to your benefit. I mean, he's mean, backstabbing, and he can be a bit of a prude at times. And seriously, imagine how poindexter-ish your children will look. Honestly, I've always seen you as someone to be more interested in George."

"George has Angelina. And they're engaged now too. All of the men of your family are!"

"There's Charlie - "

"The law is void for him because he lives in Bulgaria. Honestly, Ginny. Can't you just be happy for me for two seconds? You were complaining that I was upset when I was subject to the law and now you're complaining that I'm happy. Can you just stop talking for five minutes and appreciate the fact that none of us are subject to the matching now?"

"You're right. Congratulations to you, then." she sighed, falling back once more against the pillows at the head of the bed, "So, are you not the least bit worried about the law now. I mean, the planning."

"Your mother will have it all planned out by morning, I'm sure."

"The wedding, though..."

"The only thing I'll have to do is walk down the aisle and look pretty. And I'm sure your mother will have orchestrated that to a tee as well."

"The wedding night - "

"Oh, really, Ginny!" I gasped, shooting up out of bed, "Don't be vulgar."

"It could be a real concern for you, though. Have you, you know...done the deed before?"

"Of course I haven't. I have this crazy idea that I'm going to wait until marriage." I scoffed.

"I thought that, too, at first. But really, if you're nervous, don't you think it would be best just to get it over with? Could you even imagine how awkward that would be? Having your first time be on your wedding night?" the younger girl guffawed. I was in shock with how freely she spoke about...that.

"Ginny, I'm really not comfortable with this." I choked, shooting out of bed quickly, making my way to the hall.

"You'd better get used to it! We're practically sisters!" she called after me.

That night, I stayed on the couch. I didn't want to go back and face Ginny's wrath. I didn't have anywhere to floo to, and under no circumstances was I going to go beating on Percy's door. So, I sat all alone, waiting for whatever was to come tomorrow.

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